


fierce impatient ends

by 1001cranes



Series: A Matter of Chance [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Regency, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Regency
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 16:36:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2075265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001cranes/pseuds/1001cranes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I’m going to offer for the Stilinski boy," Peter announces at breakfast one morning.</p>
<p>Greenberg drops the entire pot of hot chocolate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fierce impatient ends

"I’m going to offer for the Stilinski boy," Peter announces at breakfast one morning.

Greenberg drops the entire pot of hot chocolate.

"Clean it up later," Talia orders, when Greenberg begins to profusely apologize and swipe uselessly at the floor. She doesn’t have her Alpha voice on, but its only about two steps below. "Leave us."

Wonderful, Peter thinks. No witness conversations are the best kind of conversations.

Once Greenberg is gone from the room and his squishy, chocolate-scented footprints disappear down the hall, Talia’s shoulders relax a fraction.

"You’re going to offer for the Stilinski boy," she repeats. 

"His name is Stiles," Peter tells her, helpful and not at all the point. "Well, his nickname is Stiles. His real name is some horrific Slavic monstrosity."

"You’re going to make an offer for the only person in Beacon Hills with a worse reputation than your own," Laura says, her tone half sarcasm, half sheer disbelief. "Astounding."

"Don’t be silly," Peter says, and delicately cracks the top of his egg. "Derek’s reputation is _terrible_.”

There’s a moment where everyone collectively dodges  _that_  uncomfortable truth. Derek doesn’t look up from where he’s methodically eating his way through a rasher of bacon, but Derek doesn’t react to much these days.  _  
_

"Be that as it may," Talia continues. "His father might be a magistrate, but the boy is a rantipole, a Jack Adams at best. You could do better."

By which she means the family could do better, of course. Peter’s reputation was singularly debauched, but being a Hale still meant something. He couldn’t attend a single fete without an overeager mama offering up her son or daughter for his perusal. 

"He isn’t that bad," Cora pipes in, unexpectedly. "No one who’s friends with Scott McCall and once knocked Jackson Whittemore out could be  _that_  bad.”

"Inappropriate, then," Talia says. "Showing a lack of control. Lack of  _judgement_.”

"Oh, just because he’s had a bit of a brush," Laura began to argue, perhaps not surprisingly. Laura and Peter had never been particularly close, but as of late Laura seemed to counter her mother on every point. "As if Uncle Peter hasn’t wenched his way across three counties!"

"At least five," Peter says calmly. He knows he’s protected by his privilege - he exploits it ruthlessly - and if those he meets aren’t smart enough to protect themselves, well, it’s not Peter’s problem. ”More, I suppose, if we were to count France. Or is it ‘departments’? I think France has departments, or something equally foolish.”

He is summarily ignored. His egg is also terribly overdone, but what could you expect from Greenberg?

"The boy was found sneaking out and about with a band of known ruffians before the dawn."

"Oh,  _Mother_  -“

"There’s little to say! If he isn’t shopworn he certainly has the appearance. There’s simply no telling what he was up to that night."

"Who’s to say he wasn’t meeting me?" Peter says.

This time the silence that falls over the room is absolute, and Cora shoots Peter a look of unmitigated glee. If Peter had to choose a favorite of his nieces and nephews, it would be Cora, certainly.

"You’re lying," Talia says after a moment, but there’s a thread of unease in it; its only a guess. Peter has admitted nothing one way or another. Who  _could_  say the Stilinski boy hadn’t snuck out to meet Peter?

"Unbelievable," Laura mutters under her breath, and goes back to eating her eggs. 

Talia still looks flummoxed. It happens so rarely Peter finds it heightens his enjoyment of this entire debacle.

"But you’ve — well."

"You’ve never wanted to marry any of the others," Derek finishes bluntly. It's the first thing he's said all morning, and might very well be the only thing he says all day. 

Peter shrugs. "None of the others were worth marrying," he says, which is true enough. Peter has no intention of being shackled to anything or anyone he doesn’t choose for himself, for whatever the reason. 

Peter takes a sip of his coffee, which is overly sugared and not at all the way he likes it, before shifting in his chair to look at Talia head on.

"You wanted me to marry," he says. “Stiles’s father is well respected, particularly in the county, and his mother’s family is well connected abroad. Stiles is clever, and has friends in the right places, and I  _want him_.” The last two words are not quite insubordinate; Peter isn’t above rebelling when the mood suits him, but there’s no need to expand his energy prematurely.

"Well," Talia says after a moment. "I was never certain I’d be able to drag you to the alter at all, so I supposed I shouldn’t look any sort of gift horse in the mouth." Her tone is Less Than Pleased, but Peter does have a tendency to be a thorn in her side.

"I think I’ll go to the Stilinskis’ this afternoon," Peter says. "Talk to the Magistrate."

Cora snorts. “Have you ever even talked to  _Stiles_?” she asks. “What makes you think he’s even going to marry you?” 

"Oh, once or twice," Peter says mildly. "And didn’t you hear? Why, the boy’s ruined! I very much doubt he’ll be getting any other offers."


End file.
